Page 92 - Talane Miedaner - Coach Yourself to a New Career_ 7 Steps to Reinventing Your Professional Life (2010)

80 COACH YOURSELF TO A NEW CAREER

to take him all over the world; he is now an investment banker,
and he travels all the time but rarely gets out of the airport or hotel
conference room to see the city he is in. Not my idea of enjoyable
travel! What income would you like? Who would you like to work
with, and who would you like to be your customer base? Young
kids, babies, adults, elderly populations, professionals, academi-
cians? Do you want to work with your hands, or do you prefer to
work with abstractions? List everything you can possibly think
of. The more specific, the better. This assignment can take the
form of bullet points, a real classified ad, or just a long descrip-
tive account. Don’t worry if it doesn’t sound practical, possible, or
sensible. Don’t worry if you need retraining or more education to
do it. We’ll get to that later. For now, just jot down a quick draft of
what you think would be ideal. You’ll fine tune this later in Step 6.
The point of this exercise is to start writing down what you already
know you’d like to do, and then we’ll expand and refine it.

MY IDEAL JOB DESCRIPTION

Great! Now that you’ve outlined your ideal job description,
you’ll find it is much easier to articulate what you really want
to potential employers. Being armed with this knowledge also
makes it much easier for you to find or create the career you really
want, as opposed to settling for what is available. Some clients are
delighted to discover that the ideal life is within reach with just a
few small changes. Others need to do a major overhaul and change
directions completely. One client, Nadine, realized that she didn’t
like her job, her relationship, or the city in which she was living.
In one fell swoop, she quit her job, broke up with her boyfriend,
packed her bags, and moved to Chicago for a totally fresh start.